2018 Cowboys Preview/NFL Predictions: Mystery

Football is finally back. Tomorrow night, the NFL regular season will kick off and the fun will begin.
But first let me give you a preview of the Dallas Cowboys.
I’m just not sure what this team is going to be like.
No Jason Witten. No Dez Bryant. No Dan Bailey, who just got cut. No Travis Frederick for who knows how long with this disease.
These receivers look unproven. The defense is supposed to be better. Is Dak Prescott going to look like the quarterback we’re expecting him to be?
Is Jason Garrett going to do enough to keep his job? Is he ever going to take this team past the divisional round of the playoffs?
Star running back Ezekiel Elliott is one of the few questions on this team. Everybody knows he’s going to bring it, especially now that he’s got that suspension behind his back.
With Dak and Zeke as a 1–2 combo, this team is pretty good. They went 13–3 in 2016 as rookies. Last year, the Cowboys were 9–7. However, Elliott was out for six of those games. They went 3–3 in his absence.
Frederick, a perennial Pro Bowl center, is hard to lose, but Joe Looney isn’t too bad. Zeke will do well behind this offensive line.
Prescott does better when Zeke is there as he struggled without him during the suspension and he didn’t do bad when Bryant was out in 2016 for some time, so I think he might do better without an elite receiver, not having to force it. That was his rookie season, though, when teams didn’t know him very well. Now, they do, which is part of why he wasn’t as consistent last year.
Losing Witten is going to be hard. Not only is he going to be hard to replace on the field but off it. That leader in the locker room, who everyone looked up to, won’t be there. It’s up to Prescott, Sean Lee, Elliott and whoever else wants to step up. I don’t feel great about the tight ends on the field as they’re very unproven with limited game time, but we’ll have to see.
The defensive line can be a real force this year as I mentioned in an earlier post. The linebackers can be great if Lee can stay healthy. The secondary is a question, but they look improved, especially with Kris Richard coaching them, who developed Seattle’s “Legion of Boom.”
Losing Bailey was a shock. The problem was a groin injury he suffered last year that is continuing to mess up the second-most accurate kicker of all time. Brett Maher, a longtime journeyman, is replacing him. He doesn’t look bad as he has quite a leg, but we don’t know how well he’ll be with his limited NFL kicking experience. He looked good in the preseason.
The defense and Zeke are what give me hope. I’m not expecting Prescott to be dominant, but he’ll be more consistent. It’s just hard to be great without an elite receiver. The defense could be the best in a long time and I like the youth on this team. I’m going to say they go 10–6 with a wild-card berth but lose in the first round.
NFL Preview: The rest of the NFL is a mystery, too. How will the Philadelphia Eagles do with Nick Foles until Carson Wentz returns and how will Wentz be? Will Aaron Rodgers be as good coming back from injury?
Below are my playoff picks:
AFC East: New England Patriots
AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South: Jacksonville Jaguars
AFC West: Los Angeles Chargers
NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles
NFC North: Green Bay Packers
NFC South: New Orleans Saints
NFC West: Los Angeles Rams
AFC wild cards: Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens
NFC wild cards: Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys
Now, for my Super Bowl prediction, I’m going to go with the New Orleans Saints over the Pittsburgh Steelers. All that great young talent to go along with Drew Brees is going to get them back to the glory land while Brees will get his second ring before he retires. The Eagles won’t have as much luck. The Rams are just a little too young. And the Packers are doing some rebuilding on defense. In the AFC, it will be a team who won’t win it all. It’s not as strong of a conference. Tom Brady can’t do enough at the age of 41. The Steelers are the most talented team and will have a better postseason.
But all that matters is what actually happens. The games begin tomorrow night!
